The Crystal Mountain (5 page)

“Why should we believe you?” Kaanyr asked. “How do we even know you are still of sound mind, after… after—”

“After becoming this monster?” Micus finished for the cambion. “I would think my twisted form would be evidence enough for you. But we must hurry! There is no more time for debate. Every moment, I feel the savage rage of the half-dragon grow inside me. Soon, it may overwhelm me, and then I will no longer be interested in helping you.”

“And just how do you intend to help us?” Kaanyr asked, his expression wary. “What do you want of us?”

“Come with me, back to the House of the Triad. I can take us there, all of us. My control over my power grows weaker by the moment, but I can still transport you, save you from this oblivion.”

“And then?” Kaanyr asked. “Once we have returned?”

“Then you will stand trial for your crimes,” the angel answered, his breath coming in gasps as he fought to maintain his senses. “You must answer for your role in Mystra’s death. But it is a better fate than remaining here, trapped, until the astral kraken—or something worse—comes for you.”

“I think not,” Kaanyr replied, an unkind grin spreading across his face. “I will not be your prize, angel.” He raised his sword higher.

“So be it!” screamed Micus. “I will take your corpses instead!” He reared, intending to charge.

Aliisza watched as the wretched thing that once had been an angel and a draconic hobgoblin charged her lover. She

saw Kaanyr step back, intent on using the columns as a line of defense.

An idea formed.

“Kaanyr, to me, quickly!” she cried, conjuring the magic of a spell she had never conceived of before. She began the incantation, only distantly thinking about where it had come from.

A blue glow formed around her, brighter than the emanation from Zasian. It turned the chamber a brilliant azure. For a heartbeat, Aliisza faltered, stunned by the peculiar effect. She regained her senses just before the energy of her magic evanesced and she managed to continue the enchantment.

The cambion performed a drop-step to slide out of the way of the charging abomination and let Micus’s momentum carry him past. Then he retreated toward Aliisza.

Perfect, Aliisza thought. She flung the completed spell forward, shaping it with a thought.

A cage appeared, a shimmering barrier of bright blue bars that pinned Micus-Myshik within. Aliisza formed it in such a way that it confined the abomination where he stood. At the same time, she felt sharp sickness erupt in her belly. She doubled over from the pain of it.

Micus roared in anger and defiance. She looked up as he battered the barrier with feet and weapon, but it resisted his efforts. He grew still, and Aliisza saw him close his eyes in concentration. Sweat poured from his face.

She could feel the angel test the limits of the magic she had woven into the arcane cage. She could feel him try to shift, to leave the place, to travel elsewhere in the multiverse.

The cage held Micus fast. When he realized he was truly trapped, he screamed and threw himself at the barrier.

Beside her, Kaanyr kept shifting his view between the caged abomination and the alu. “What did you do?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, feeling the sickness recede. The strange blue glow faded with it. She rose upright and attempted to smooth her features. “I’m fine. It’s nothing,” she lied. “Magic has been behaving oddly ever since…” She left the thought hanging and shook her head to dismiss it.

“But that’s not a trick I ever remember you performing before,” Kaanyr said quietly. “And you looked like you were in pain. What’s happening?”

Aliisza reached a hand up and touched Kaanyr on the lips. “I said I’m fine,” she replied with a faint smile. “Just too much excitement. And you should know your girl well enough by now to understand that I’m still full of tricks.”

The cambion stared at her a moment longer, then shrugged and turned to examine the cage she had created.

He did not see her troubled expression as she contemplated what had just occurred. What in the Nine Hells is happening to me? she wondered.

Eirwyn felt like she and Oshiga had been climbing forever. Up and up she flew, following the trumpet archon, ascending past the endless slopes of Mount Celestia. The pair winged their way through numerous layers of clouds, emerging each time above yet another realm with yet another great slope rising before them.

The angel had never traversed so far up the sides of the majestic peak, and she had never fully realized how

incredibly large it was. Once, as they had stopped for a rest upon a small tropical island with a beautiful beach of white sand and palm trees, Eirwyn asked her guide if the mountain was truly so massive. Oshiga had assured her that they were taking a shortcut between layers and would reach Venya soon.

The two of them passed through yet another large bank of clouds, and Eirwyn shivered at the damp, cool caress of the water vapor. She concentrated on staying close to her guide, as he had instructed her, for he had warned that to fall behind or lose her way could result in being lost forever within the heavenly realm.

She kept the archon firmly in sight.

Eirwyn burst from the cloud cover abruptly and found herself soaring over rich, green farmland far below. The route Oshiga followed took them over a ridge of forest and then across the shoreline of a vast, blue lake. The angel stared down into the clear water as she kept pace with her companion, spying unusual shapes along the bottom.

Seashells, she realized, and massive ones at that.

It made no sense to Eirwyn, having seashells within a mountain lake, but she shrugged it off as the whim of the archon ruler of the place.

Oshiga changed course, diving toward the surface of the water Puzzled, Eirwyn followed him, noting that he angled toward a particularly deep cleft in the lake floor. At first, the angel thought perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her, but eventually she was certain that faint light glowed from something within that cleft.

Eirwyn took a huge breath and held it, then braced herself as the two plunged into the crystal-clear lake, expecting the

water to be icy from mountain runoff. She was surprised when the jolt of crisp cold did not hit her.

At first, the angel tried to swim, but she caught on quickly that Oshiga still “flew” with his wings, coursing through the water at incredible speed, and if she did not attempt the same mode of travel, she would lag behind. Shrugging, Eirwyn unfurled her own wings and tested them.

It felt no different to her than gliding through the air.

“You need not fear drowning here,” Oshiga called to her over his shoulder as they moved deeper into the depths. “You are a guest of Erathaol’s. He has made the way more welcoming.”

Eirwyn, her chest already aching from holding her breath, released it, and was surprised to find no bubbles escaping her mouth. Tentatively, she drew in a breath. She did not choke on the water. How wonderfully odd, she thought, and began breathing normally.

As the light from above grew dimmer, the glow from below increased. Eirwyn found that she could see just fine the entire way down. More than once, they startled a school of fish as they passed, sending the creatures scurrying with a flash of silver.

Before long, they reached the bottom, and Eirwyn stood before a massive edifice made of huge seashells. It rose before her like a great castle, with countless levels towering overhead. The glow she had seen before emanated from within, shining out through windows and doorways scattered all across the imposing structure’s surfaces.

Oshiga led her to a large portal made from a matching pair of shells. It fanned open like the angel’s own wings and covered the entrance. The twin valves parted before the archon, and

Eirwyn followed him into a long hallway beyond. The shells sealed themselves shut once they had passed them, leaving both standing in a corridor filled with air rather than water. Eirwyn was perfectly dry.

“What a fascinating journey,” she said with a smile. “It’s not every day you get the opportunity to fly through the water.”

“As I said,” Oshiga replied, “Erathaol welcomes you and wished to make the way easy. Come.” He led his charge deeper into the castle.

Eirwyn followed her guide through numerous hallways, passages, and rooms, marveling at the decoration. Every surface not covered in bookcases featured smooth white stone, perhaps marble, covered with finely etched imagery, often visual tales that stretched for many paces with one scene flowing seamlessly into the next. Sculptures of dainty coral, delicate gold and silver filigree, or highly polished wood, bone, and stone separated the graphic stories, while rich tapestries divided large chambers into smaller, more cozy sections. Luxurious divans, end tables, and throw rugs completed the furnishings, while the entire place glowed with the warmth of faint but soothing amber light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

Eirwyn hardly noticed the grand extravagance of the place, though. The sheer volume of written works completely captivated her.

She stopped in one great oval room through which they walked, staring awestruck at row upon row of tomes, scrolls, and tablets. They sat upon great bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and covered every wall, with more standing free in rows through the middle of the chamber.

“So many,” the angel breathed, gawking. “Never have I seen so many.”

“And they shall be yours to peruse as you desire,” Oshiga said, taking Eirwyn’s hand and gently pulling her along. “But first, you must meet with the Seer. He has much to discuss with you.”

A shiver of delight went down the angel’s spine as she turned to follow the archon toward another set of double doors. Even as an immortal, she thought, I could never finish reading all of these.

The two of them passed through the portal and into an inner sanctum. Eirwyn followed Oshiga past more stacks of books and toward what she could only think of as a very sumptuous den. Several divans framed an open area with a large table in the middle. Smaller tables with faint glowing orbs set like lamps rested between the couches, providing rich, comfortable reading light. An assortment of books, many open, lay scattered across the central table. Others teetered in rickety stacks, ribboned bookmarks spilling free of the pages.

A figure stood with its back to the two visitors, bent over, studying something Eirwyn could not make out. She could tell that her host stood considerably taller than either her or her guide. Lustrous golden hair cascaded down the figure’s back, draped upon rich blue robes adorned with finely wrought silver thread and hundreds upon hundreds of pearls. A pair of white feathery wings sprouted from the middle of the figure’s back, folded tightly against the robes.

At the sound of Eirwyn and Oshiga’s approaching footsteps, the figure straightened, turned, and faced them. The wise and serene face that regarded them was human, faintly male in attributes, and pearly white.

He smiled warmly and gestured for Eirwyn to come closer. “Welcome, deva,” he said, and his voice resonated throughout the chamber like the deep echoes of a whalehorn. “I am so pleased you decided to visit me.”

Eirwyn blushed despite her years. She curtsied once and smiled back. “Thank you for inviting me, my lord Seer,” she said, “and for sparing me the fate of loneliness and inactivity that had been thrust upon me.”

“Please,” the figure across from her said, “address me as Erathaol. And it is I who must thank you, Eirwyn, for choosing to accept my hospitality.”

Eirwyn nodded again, but she frowned. “I am grateful, but I am puzzled too. I cannot fathom why you would possibly need my services. Your powers of divination are vast compared to my own.”

The archon pursed his lips and nodded. “Indeed, my insight is great. But even one such as I cannot foretell every possible bit of the future. There are things that remain hidden from me, or that are simply beyond my scope to research and discover. Time is my enemy in many ways, Eirwyn.”

She nodded.

“However, I did not ask you here because I need your help, strictly speaking.”

Eirwyn cocked her head to one side. “Oh?” She cast a sideways glance at Oshiga. “Your messenger claimed otherwise.”

The trumpet archon looked confused and a bit uncomfortable.

Erathaol smiled. “Yes,” he said. “Because I did not choose to reveal my true intentions to him. I hope the deception does not sour your enthusiasm for your visit.”

Eirwyn raised her eyebrows. “That depends on the real

reason you asked me here.” She felt uncomfortable speaking to a paragon archon in such a manner, but at the same time, she did not care for being deceived.

“Truthfully, I cannot explain it all to you,” the Seer admitted. “For I do not know all, myself. I only understand that you have locked within you a great secret, a glimpse into the future that must be revealed, lest dire happenings come to pass.”

“Inside me?”

“Indeed,” Erathaol said. “Something you yourself cannot yet see. Something quite dark and dangerous.”

Eirwyn’s thoughts turned to her dreams, forgotten each morning when she awoke.

“Yes,” the Seer said, “you struggle against remembering. We must find a way to calm you, to allow them to come to the surface. I believe you will recall them during your stay here.”

Eirwyn was suddenly terrified.

Satisfied that the abomination of Micus and Myshik could not escape the cage Aliisza had formed, Kaanyr turned his attention back to their surroundings. He eyed the edge of the gaping hole where the astral kraken had tried to make a meal of him and noted that the edges remained rough, irregular, just as the beast had left them.

“The bubble no longer seems to be shrinking,” he said. When Aliisza did not answer, he turned to find her kneeling over the prone form of Kael. The sight made him grimace. Would she be that concerned over my injuries, he wondered, or has Tauran filled her head with too many foolish thoughts of nobility?

Despite his anger, the image of her worrying over him pleased Kaanyr. There was a time, not so long ago…